Paths to Publishing with The Porch (CLE)

The path from aspiring writer to published author requires tenacity, intention, and planning. The prestige and support structure offered by traditional publishers continues to be a desirable path for many writers. Yet, with the proliferation of professional, low-cost printing options and the ubiquity of e-books, self-publishing is on the rise and here to stay. No matter which path they choose, authors need to build a team around them, to ensure longterm success. Attendees will learn the benefits and pitfalls of the many paths to publishing from industry experts, authors, publishers, and more.

This course is approved by the Tennessee Commission on Continuing Legal Education for a maximum of one and a half (1.5) hours of general credit.

REGISTER AND RECEIVE 10% OFF AT PARNASSUS BOOKS

Show your proof of purchase for Paths to Publishing with The Porch when you check out at Parnassus Books on the day of the panel and receive 10% off your purchase. Offer valid February 10, 2022 only. Restrictions apply.

About the moderator

Mike Bzozowski, Attorney at Law

Mike Bzozowski is the Business Affairs Counsel for HarperCollins Christian Publishing in Nashville, TN. He focuses on statutory, litigation, and general business matters including intellectual property and legal reads. He has managed and negotiated publishing contracts on behalf of the Zondervan, Thomas Nelson, and HarperInspire imprints. He attended law school at the Columbus School of Law at Catholic University and is a licensed attorney in Tennessee, New York, and Washington, DC. He is originally from New Jersey and in his spare time, he reads, volunteers with the ABC, and studies Italian. He is currently reading Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi and Slow Food Nation by Carlo Petrini.

About the panelists

C.I. Aki

C.I. Aki, the son of a Nigerian economist and a Nigerian-Jamaican horticulturalist, is a poet, essayist, filmmaker, and educator based in Nashville, TN. His debut collection of poems The World Black, Beautiful, and Beast on April Gloaming Publishing is a witness to the constraints and restraints upon the beautiful freedom of the black soul.

You can follow him on Instagram @soul_lit_writer or his linktr.ee.C.I.Aki

Jennifer Chesak

Jennifer Chesak’s indie publishing and editing business, Wandering in the Words Press, helps authors cut through industry red tape, take control of their royalties, and get their books to the masses in a polished and professional manner. Jennifer earned her Master of Science in Journalism from Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism. She also teaches copyediting at Belmont University as well as workshops at The Porch, and she serves as the managing editor for the literary magazine SHIFT. As a freelance science and medical journalist, Jennifer has bylines in the Washington Post, Verywell, Healthline, Greatist, Prevention, and more.

Read her work at www.jenniferchesak.com.

Margaret Riley King

Margaret Riley King is an agent in the Literary Department at William Morris Endeavor, where she began her career after graduating from Princeton University with a BA in History and a Certificate in Theater and Dance. She represents both literary and commercial fiction, young adult and middle grade, some narrative nonfiction and memoir and lifestyle titles in the areas of food, psychology, health, faith/spirituality, and well-being.

Her recent and upcoming projects include: bestselling author Glennon Doyle’s memoir, Love Warrior, which debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list and was selected as an Oprah Book Club pick; Edna Ferber Fiction Book Award winner and New York Times bestselling author Chloe Benjamin’s novel, The Immortalists; award-winning civil rights advocate and interfaith leader Valarie Kaur’s debut, Revolutionary Love; Pantsuit Nation edited by Libby Chamberlain; and NYT bestselling author Ann Kidd Taylor’s new novel, The Shark Club. A selection of clients includes Jacqueline Woodson, Nadia Bolz-Weber, the Robertson family of A&E’s Duck Dynasty, Laura Moriarty, Khalida Brohi, Cammie McGovern, NYT bestselling author, and world-renowned yoga instructor Rachel Brathen, Kristen Howerton of Rage Against the Minivan and Newbery Award winner Sheila Turnage.

Cecelia Tichi

A native of Steel City, Pittsburgh, Cecelia Tichi is an award-winning author and faculty member at Vanderbilt University. Her books span American literature and culture from colonial days to modern times, but recently draw upon the Gilded Age (1870-1914) that prompted her book on Jack London and another on seven activists in that tumultuous era. Tichi’s What Would Mrs. Astor Do? A Complete Guide to the Manners and Mores of the Gilded Age (2018) segues to her new mystery series, A Gilded Death, together with Murder, Murder, Murder in Gilded Central Park, and A Fatal Gilded High Note. Cecelia is at work on a fourth historical mystery, “A Fatal Gilded Freefal.” She enjoys membership and posting in Facebook’s The Gilded Age Society.

Cecelia’s books have been reviewed in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Publisher’s Weekly, and elsewhere. Tichi’s five previous mystery novels (under Tishy), set in Nashville and Boston, have been praised by mystery guru Lisa Scottoline as “great reading,” and hailed by Booklist as “a real treat.” She makes her home in Nashville, Tennessee.